Story Time

"Welcome back, class. I hope you all had a wonderful break."

"Thank you, Teacher."

"Yes, well, I'm sure all of you are dying to talk about what you all spent that refreshing reprieve doing and not doing, but before we do anything useful...it's story time!"

"Yay!"

"Now now, calm down. This is the story of a man. A man who, as a boy, had the most wonderful upbringing. You see, his parents had paid attention to their own parents, and still believed in the proper standards that had been set way back in those olden days. It's really a shame that so few families still have such moral discipline...but silly Teacher could lose her job for telling you all such things! Anyway, no one around could claim to be the nice guy that this man was, such did he believe in doing the right thing. His friends, in particular, remembered him for this.

'Hey, can I borrow your homework? Nah, don't worry; Teach'll never catch me! You're always top of the class anyway, man! No sweat.'

'Man, check that girl out! Think I'll ask her out for a few drinks. What? You two've been going out for a couple of weeks now? C'mon man, nice guys like you always get the babes. Just take a dive for me this once, k? I'll make it up to ya, promise!'

'The boss is making his rounds. Please man, I need that promotion. I know Boss's had his eye on you...but I gotta feed my wife and kids, y'know? What...never mentioned the wedding? Slip o' the tongue, buddy. Haha, sorry.'

And so more years passed, in much the same manner. The man, slowly but surely, began to learn from his mistakes, and changes came about in his life. Positive changes, to be sure. Success. Fame. He got it all. At a cost, to be sure, but who has time for such sentiments? This man had it made. And so he lived out the rest of his days, forgetting the chains of his past, and only looking out for whom he cared most.

I hope you all see the moral of this story. The Board has been very clear about getting a point like this across...yes, Jimmy? A question?"

"Yes, Teacher...about the ending of the story..."

"Yes, go on. Don't take too long now. What do you think?"

"Screw that."